ELECTION: Labour challenge the marginal seat of Weaver Vale, but what does that mean to young voters?

AS campaigning gets underway throughout the United Kingdom, constituents will soon find themselves in a battle of policies as parties aim to win all-important votes.

FLYING HIGH: Julia calls for people to get in touch via her campaign flyer

One constituency which is up for contention is the marginal seat of Weaver Vale. Partly situated in Cheshire and Halton, the area is a strong target for the Labour Party as they plan to unseat the current Conservative Member of Parliament.

Julia Tickridge, who is the Labour candidate, believes that in order to get more young adults to vote, political members need to reach out to this divided age group.

“I think that we have to get out of the bubble we might be living in and go out to where the people are,” said Julia.

“We need to engage with them either at the workplace, schools, colleges or through the way the labour party campaigns, which is knocking on peoples doors and asking opinions.

“I think what people have to do, something of which I am learning and is a skill which every politician needs to learn, is to listen because if you are not listening and not truly reflecting what the constituents want, you cannot engage, nor win trust and you have got to get these people to vote.”

OFFICE: The base for Julia's campaign at Runcorn Shopping Centre

As the parties outline a number of different policies in their manifestos, one key area which Labour has highlighted, is their intention to create more apprenticeships, something of which Julia feels will be an incentive to get more young people working harder in schools.

“If young people get the grades then they will be guaranteed apprenticeships.

“When I say apprenticeships, I mean real apprenticeships, whereby a young person will at least get a level three qualification.

“They also have to be of a longer duration and obviously we want proper schemes, not just a short term measure that appears to create an opportunity which doesn’t lead to anything.

“We will then have to engage with employers and give them incentives to start up training schemes.

“It has to be properly sustainable and built into a company where they are planning for the future.”

As well as creating more apprenticeships for young adults, the Labour party intend to reduce tuition fees, another incentive aimed at helping the younger generation.

“If you think about where we were five years ago, there was quite a buzz about these television debates and it seemed to be the culture of the personality,” added Julia.

“As we can see it was all talk, but when it came to it and decisions had to be made, we had the coalition government formed and the first thing they did was go back on their promises; by this I mean the Liberal Democrats and the tuition fees.

“This is why Ed Miliband has made a stand to bring the tuition fee down to six thousand pounds.”

With large numbers of people either working on zero hour contracts or a low hourly wage, the party have stated how they would abolish exploitative nature within the workplace.

Listen to what Julia had to say about the minimum wage below.

In a world where politicians are either loved or loathed, there isn’t much margin for error. With this in mind, Julia explained what it is that draws her to life at Westminster.

“I wanted to stand, as when I was looking at the last general election, I didn’t see a group of people as politicians who I felt were truly representative of the people they were there to serve.

“For me there wasn’t enough representation from women. There are so few women who actually get involved in politics to be truly representative of people.

“When you think about the changes we need and the way we run our society, you have got to have a much more representative body of people that actually take the interests of the people to parliament and that above anything else made me want to stand.”

With only two thirds of votes cast in the constituency during the 2010 General Election, Julia will be looking to do all she can to increase the turnout before the big day arrives on 7 May.